The long way round.

From mid-April to the end of July 2004, actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman went from London to New York by motorbike.

They left London on 14^th April and travelled 30,395 kilometres through central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Canada.

In Siberia there were no roads for part of the journey, so they travelled 933 kilometres by train. They went by air from Magadan in Siberia to Anchorage in Alaska and continued their journey across Canada and the USA. They arrived in New York on the 29^th of July.

Ewan and Charlie are Hollywood stars, but they didn’t stay in 5-star hotels. At night they camped or stayed in motels. Sometimes people invited them into their homes.

They wanted to work with a children’s charity, so they visited UNICEF projects in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. They met a lot of children there and made friend for life.

After the trip they sold their motorbikes for charity and started planning their next trip.

Notes: continued – продолжали, across – через, camped – останавливались в кемпинге, располагались лагерем, на открытом воздухе, invited – приглашали, a children’s charity – детский благотворительный фонд .

5. Complete the summery:

(1) Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman went round the world by (2) … . They travelled (3) … kilometres. It took (4) … and a half months. They started the journey on 14^th (5) … 2004 and finished on 29^th (6) … 2004.

6. What was the last big journey you did? Tell your partner. (For example, in 2006 I went to Florida. I went by air and …)

7. What is your favourite means of travelling? What is the most comfortable means of travelling? Prove your point of view.

8. Read and translate this quote of travel writer. Answer the questions.

There is not much to say about most airplane journeys. Anything remarkable must be disastrous, so you define a good flight by negatives: you didn’t get hijacked, you didn’t crush, you didn’t throw up, you weren’t late, you weren’t nauseated by the food. (Paul Theroux, travel writer)

1. What is your opinion of airplane journeys?

2. Do you ever travel on business? If not would you like to?

2. What do you think are the worst things about business travel?

9. Sentence-building: combine one word from each section to make at least ten sentences. Start by making collocations from column 3 and 4. Add your own ideas, if you like.

late

getting interesting people

losing problems

the endless jams

don’t like flight lag

can’t stand meeting my luggage

hate tight food

dread missing queues

like finding out schedules

look forward to strange nights

enjoy language lost

love jet my family

getting away from the office

traffic about different cultures having foreign places

being away from new experiences

visiting delays

10. Look at these ways of emphasizing your opinions:

What I really like is finding out about different cultures.

What I hate most is being away from my family.

The thing I love most is visiting foreign places.

The best thing for me is getting out of the office for a few days.

The worst thing for me is flight delays.

Work in groups. Tell other people in the group what you like and dislike most about travelling.

11. Match the halves of the following questions (polite requests and enquiries):

1. Could I a) what time you stop serving dinner?

2. Could you b) have your room number, please?

3. Would you mind c) switch off your laptop now, please, sir?

4. Can you tell me d) not smoking, please?

5. Would you please e) to open your luggage, please, madam?

6. Could I ask you f) make sure your seatbelt is fastened?

7. Do you think I could g) send a fax from?

8. Is there somewhere I could h) have an alarm call at half past six

tomorrow morning?